04/30/2025
How long have humans been wearing shoes?
According to research done at Washington University where they analyzed foot bones from early humans and Neanderthals, humans started wearing shoes about 40,000 years ago. The oldest pair of shoes that was found was buried in ancient sheep dung in a cave in Armenia. It was a 5,500-year-old leather moccasin that is older than Stonehenge.
Fear of Feet? Podophobia.
Podophobia manifests itself as anger or extreme disgust to the sight of feet. People with podophobia get upset by reading about feet, talking about feet, and even touching their own feet. As you can imagine, this can have harmful effects on people’s health because it impacts their ability to put and remove shoes and socks or wash their own feet, leading to serious infections and other problems.
World’s largest and smallest feet
The largest foot on a living person in the world measures 1 foot, 3.96 inches in length (EU size 58). The smallest? 3.72 inches long.
Toe wrestling is an actual competitive sport.
Since 1970, toe wrestling has been a sport. There is a Toe Wrestling World Championship in England complete with men’s and women’s division. In toe wrestling, opponents try to pin and hold down their opponent’s bare toes for three seconds. The one who wins two times out of three rounds wins.
We ask a lot of our feet.
The average person takes 8,000-10,000 steps each day. That adds up to approximately 115,000 miles in a typical lifetime—the equivalent to circling the globe more than four times! In an average day of walking, your feet experience forces totaling hundreds of tons—the equivalent of a fully-loaded cement truck.
Take good care of your feet this spring!
